Several neurological and psychiatric diseases have excessively strong neuronal activity synchronization processes in the brain. Here, nerve cell networks exhibit abnormal, e.g. excessively synchronous, activity in circumscribed regions of the brain, e.g. the thalamus and the basal ganglia. In this case, a large number of neurons synchronously form action potentials, i.e. the involved neurons fire excessively synchronously, as a result of which the function of the brain is massively impaired. By contrast, in healthy individuals the neurons fire in a qualitatively different fashion in these regions of the brain, e.g. in an uncorrelated fashion.
If medicament-based therapy fails, neurological and psychiatric diseases with excessively strongly pronounced neuronal synchronization are to date treated by electric brain stimulation.